Sunday, 17 February 2013

I miss the chickens.I miss their morning clucking, the sound they made when they were
laying, the boasting that happened afterwards and the crooning when they found
their favourite patch of grass in the sun.I also miss their eggs.Each
chicken laid differently – at different times of the day, yes, but they also
had very distinctive eggs too.Poppy’s
eggs were renown for having light yellow yolks, thin membranes and HUUUUGGGE
shells.Ruby’s were medium, had darker
yolks, Speckled Gemima’s were small, spreckled and firm.They were ideal for poaching, whereas Poppy
and Ruby’s eggs were best fried.

Someday I’ll get chickens again.I certainly don’t miss de-icing their water
every morning in the winter, or finding red mites in the summer (evil things).The darkest part of hen keeping is when they
get ill.Commercial hens have been bred
to produce eggs at a high rate – an unnaturally high rate.It takes its toll on them and their life span
is lucky to be three years.I know some
keepers who’ve got chickens that last 20 years and up, but this is not the
norm… those are superchicks!The cost of
feed has also hit the roof, making hen keeping more of an expensive hobby
rather than a slice of the good life.That, has got to be all this rain that keeps threatening crops…

Which brings me to the allotment.I’ve got my seeds ready, the ground is
prepped… it’s time soon to start work.Just as soon as this cold weather lets up and this heavy drench peters
out.Icy swamps are not good for
growing!

And despite having promised life a slowed down pace… I ended
up sending a mass of submissions out and am getting acceptances!It’s amazing and I’m so excited, but it also
means more work and manic writing.I’ve
re-started my non-fiction writing as it’s nice to have a trickle of income
(even though the per-hour rate is about 10cents an hour).But it’s nice to have a reconnection with
other writers and post interviews of their successes.

So on to my accepted submissions… Firstly, I’m working on
and with an amazing charity anthology for Springbok Publications – the new
small press that will be highlighting the plight of the African Black Rhino and
all proceeds will go to that charity.I’ll have a teen fiction slant on my story (I’ll also be submitting a
poem) which brings me to the fact that I’ve had a lightning moment and I KNOW
MY GENRE.I’m a teen fiction writer (hear
my friends say, ‘duh!’) although I do also write for children (and the child at
heart).No more horror, no more
steampunk attempts, no more random submissions for women’s magazines.It’s all about children’s and YA fiction with
a slant on the edgy and dark side.

Okay, okay, I’m rambling again.Back to accepted submissions.My non-fiction Three Victorian Women in
Asylum is also being taken on by Springbok and I’m going to do my darnedest to
help promote it by writing a series of articles and sending them out to (don’t
groan) women’s magazines (so, I may not be writing fiction for them, but a good
article is different ;)I still have to
finish the draft and pay for the photos of the women (in archive at the moment)
but I expect to have it ready by October this year (not the release date, but
the date I send it to my publisher).

Next on the list (whew! getting tired already and there is
still much more to cover) which is I’ve had my stories accepted with provision
to bookstogonow.com which is a fabulous small press that helped my friend and
fellow writer Tim Reed reach bestselling proportions.As they no longer publish individual short
stories, I’ve sent them a collection of teen dark fiction – two have been
previously published so they might want fresh new ones and I don’t want to
chuck my ‘wrong genre’ unpublished stories in with the goodies I sent them
earlier.So we’ll see.The real up note on this is that I think
they’ll be interested in Downtrodden, my latest teen (well 15+ due to some
graphic scenes – I’ve posted snippits of this book on previous blogs) fantasy
novel.

Did I say I missed the chickens?I could use their calming company.Aside from all the writing tasks I’ve given
myself, I also am developing a line of wedding and engagement rings for
Seadrake Creations.I’ll start them from
cast silver and have prices up for gold and platinum if people would prefer one
metal over the other.Then, and here is
the exciting bit… customers can choose their stone so they know exactly what
they’re getting (unless they want me to pick one out – oooh like a dark, dark
ocean blue brilliant cut sapphire… drool).

I’ve found that working with my hands keeps my head from
spinning new stories and is the most relaxing thing around.That, and going to craft fairs is a wonderful
day out which involves being computer free.Bliss.

Well, I think that right about wraps things up.I’ve got my suite101 articles going again,
but I may jump ship to helium as suite is yet again changing things and is very
vague about whether writers will be getting any money at all for their
work.Ah well, at least I got a few goodinterviews in ;)

Saturday, 2 February 2013

I’ve decided that I should no longer be that manic girl… the
one chasing her own tail and running herself into the ground with a million and
one different projects on top of the normal everyday duties that life
brings.This year is going to be all
about growing.Not personal growth
(although I’m sure a bit of that will happen) but vegetable and herbs.

I was going to give up the allotment – with my little girl
too young to not in danger on the plot (there are a lot of poisonous weeds and
stinging nettles), and with moving house, I knew I wouldn’t have any time for
it anymore.I was gutted.The allotment was, ironically, really the
only thing that kept me truly rooted in the UK, even in the winter.But having thought things through (mostly not
wanting to dig up our apple trees and relocate our berry plants) it’s
staying.

Last three seasons were horrible to veg – if anyone grows
their own vegetables, they’ll know exactly what I mean.From drought to floods; frost to heat wave
and back again, those little plants have a hard time surviving, let alone
producing fruit or tubers (my first earlies crop of potatoes were mini and most
of my lates had rotted themselves in the ground after having lain in permanent
puddles despite the well draining soil).But the berries… oh, the berries loved it!They could handle the dry weather and still
bring fruits, the heavy rain just made the produce more.Even the birds couldn’t get their fill of
those amazing blueberries and raspberries.The strawberries did okay… I’ll work on those too.But for the next season, the allotment is
going to be about raspberry canes and blueberry bushes.I can never get enough of them anyway and
being low maintenance and easy to grow, they’ll keep the allotment producing
until my little girl is big enough to go to school. Then maybe this horrible
extreme weather would have settled a bit and I can get back on to growing the
basics.

The new house has got some amazing potential too for a herb
garden in one area, a potted veg patch in the other, and space for a cob nut
tree and couple of apples.There will
be… a lot of digging going on in the next few months.

That said, I still have been very busy with writing and
jewellery.I’ve been lucky enough to be
asked back as a judge for the Paws n’ Claws competition for children’s fiction
stories, I still have to edit and complete my fantasy book, Downtrodden (might
even have a chance to upload it before the new year), and of course, writing
for knowonder.com.And sending out to
agents… but that’s a given rather like breathing.And I’ll keep it all low key.Even now that I’m part of a new publishing
group, Springbok Publications, I’m staying low key for a while and asked to
only be assistant editor due to time constraints.

As for Seadrake Creations, I’ve got my etsy shop all pretty
and will be working on new lines casually and adding them when I’ve got a
moment to do so.This year for Seadrake
will be less focus on selling and publicity and more time spent on learning new
techniques and skills.Rather like an
extended internship.

So, whew!Bring on
those long days so I can get back to digging over the allotment…

About Me

I am an archaeologist and freelance writer. Previously a staff writer for the children's literary website knowonder.com and an editor for the Wyvern Publications team, I spend most of my time reading, researching and writing historical fiction - although, I do enjoy as much time as I can with my family and enjoying the Southern California coastline when I'm home. I also write an historical fiction murder mystery series under the pen name of Lizzy Drake.